Category Archives: Literarally

We think Marty may need to brush up on his English Lit. When the ousted Survivor competitor arrived at Ponderosa, the lodging for jury members, he catches a glimpse of himself in the mirror for the first time in weeks and compares his visage to that of “Robinson Caruso.” Although, that might have been a better career choice for David than Jade.

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We’re surprised that Marty didn’t describe to his time in Espada camp as reminiscent of Swiss Family Holly Robinson Peete.

A couple weeks back Tony Danza was nice enough to get into his time machine in order to perform a horribly outdated, rhythmless, patently offensive rap. Apparently that went over so well that he decided to turn his standard birthday song into a hip hop ditty (for the principal!).

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No, no one is smiling. And while she’s not wishing that you would disappear, she probably would have preferred it if you spared us all the minstrel show.

And it was a two-fer Friday night with two back-to-back episodes of Teach, so here’s a bonus moment of the week. Somebody has a crush!

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BURNED, DANZA!!!!! OUCH! And Chloe adding insult to injury with that glasses crack, no less. Nice work, kid (although, that doesn’t appear to be a regulation school uniform. Guess it was casual Friday).

And in case you’re still skeptical out there:

But, as much as we’ve had our fun with Tony Danza, we have to admit that he really poured his heart into teaching these kids, and took the responsibility severely more personally than most teachers do (although, he’d probably get jaded too if he taught more than one class a day for more than one year). He even volunteers to mentor a troubled teen delinquent who’s not even in Mr. Danza’s class. Sometimes Danza takes the “he reminds me of me” thing a little too far (especially when he compares losing his father when he was thirty years-old to a kid being in jail while his mom died) , but he’s certainly willing to sacrifice his time and energy to help these kids. He’s the boss. So good for you Tony, just PLEASE stop rapping.

And apparently this was the season finale, which means the first season ended on a dark, pessimistic, almost The Wire-like note, as Tony struggles to get through to his students and questions his ability to do so, while his reclamation project may be heading to prison. It certainly wasn’t the uplifting conclusion we expected. Let’s hope that means it’s merely a cliffhanger to be revisited in season two (although the fact that they burned off two episodes in one night is not an encouraging). But until we get that resolution, if we even do at all, we’ll be worrying about the fate of Tony Danza, boxer, taxi driver, boss, tapper, teacher. At least we know he’ll be breathing okay.

Well, now there’s a book (not written by us). Bill Carter, who chronicled the first Tonight Show War in The Late Shift, is set to release The War for Late Night, an in-depth look at last winter’s late night talkie drama, what many of us referred to as the Jaypocalypse. With Conan, beard and all, set to premiere his new show on TBS in just a matter of days, the book should be a fascinating recount of how the late night landscape was perhaps forever changed, and how, in the end, the skirmish might have been the best thing that ever happened to Conan O’Brien.

And since there will inevitably be a movie based on the book, let’s remember the last one:

(Fun Fact: did you know that the actor who played Jay Leno in The Late Shift, Daniel Roebuck, went on to play Dr. Leslie Artz on Lost? It’s true! I know, right?! Oh, and Letterman was played by John Michael Higgins, who is just generally awesome. Crazy!)

Beyond the brief discussion about Black’s essay and Joel’s actual experience of going to party and finding out he’s supposed to be the entertainment, it’s a thoroughly enjoyable interview that delves into Joel’s personal past, and also goes in depth about Joel’s new concert film/documentary Last Play at Shea.

So that makes it Billy Joel, Michael Ian Black, and the Mets all in one conversation! That’s like Christmas for a Long Island Jew Comedy Nerd! Mazel Tov!